Fractured pride
by Amethyst trickster
Summary: Pidge has been tricked into teaming up with Lotor for a mission. Keith is so obsessed with finding Shiro that he doesn't realize he might be losing the rest of his team, Lance is losing it, and Hunk is just trying to keep the team together. Will they ever find the Black paladin? Season two finale inspired.
1. Chapter 1

"Ok, Ok, run me through this one more time. What happened to Shiro?" Lance asked.

"We think he's in the spirit realm." Allura said, not looking up from her console.

"Uh, huh," Lance said, unconvinced, "And that is?"

"It's a higher plane, the source of mystical energy and the place where the link between Lions is-"

"Forget all that, can we get him back?" Keith asked.

"Well, it's complicated, The priests and priestesses kept all the information about the spirit realm close to the chest. Now that they're all gone, we don't have a whole lot to go on."

" Don't be so sure about that." Coran said, entering the room holding a box, "I've got something that could help."

He placed the box on the console next to Allura and she peered into it. "Oh, Corin, I don't know about using that."

"What is it?" Pidge asked, pulling the box off the console to look in.

Hank glanced over her shoulder and pulled out a hand console, Corin pointed at it.

"That is used to locate the three parts of a portal to the spirit realm. One of the portals, one of them in in the Black lion, but we can't get it to open up."

They had all attempted to get the Black lion to pull out the black bayard but she refused. They reasoned that she was refusing to open up because she felt her paladin was the only one who had the right to ask for it.

"Why would they put that in there in the first place, what's the point of stranding your pilot?" Hunk asked.

"The black paladin is supposed to be able to ask the Black Lion to bring him back. unfortunately, Shiro doesn't know he can do that, which means we have to assume that he doesn't know how.

"Ok, so let's just use this thing and get him back already." Keith said.

"Only priests and priestesses of the spirit realm were allowed to use these. They had to go through rigorous training, the contents of which were known only to them. You see this?" Coran said, pulling out a black band from the box.

"That hand tracker Hunk is holding needs psychic energy to run. So one of the priestesses would supply it by wearing this band on their head. They'd supply the energy themselves, but they had a lot of rules, like you can't take the headband off until you'd found what you were searching for or it would stop working."

"Unnecessary superstition, "Pidge said grabbing the band out of Corin's hands," I bet I can get this to work easy."

Pidge put the headband on. They watched the hand console eagerly. Nothing happened.

"Oh, let me try." Hunk said, picking up the band and putting it on his head, Lance glanced at the console excitedly. Nothing happened.

They all deflated.

"Stop that, stop that, " Coran said, "That's not a toy, it's a sacred artifact of great power."

"Doesn't look like it's got a lot of power to me," Keith sneered, he turned to Allura, "Please tell me you've got a better option for getting Shiro back."

"I'm piloting us over to a planetary cluster that used to hold an Altean outpost with an order of priestesses there, hopefully we can find something there that can help us." Allura said, before looking horrified. " Oh no, what happened!"

They looked at the screen, there was a planet alright, a big one, but only one, surrounded by several moons.

"It looks like a few planets intercepted each other in orbit and smashed apart, looks like they've reformed as smaller moons around the remaining planet." Hunk said.

"That's a disaster! What are we going to do now?"

"Don't panic yet, " Lance suggested, " We can still check the last planet, maybe there's something there we can use to Shiro back."

"You're right, that's exactly what we should do, buckle up team, we're going in."

When they found out that the remaining planet was the one they were looking for they were ecstatic, when they found out that the history of the post had been carefully preserved they were even more eager to find out what they could.

That's why it was so disappointing when they found out that information was classified.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but only historians of some note are allowed to learn about that point in history."

"I _am_ a historian, I literally lived there."

"Perhaps, but since you don't have the doctorate I'm not allowed to accept that answer."

Allura continued to attempt to convince them to open the files while the paladins milled about in the waiting room.

"I spy with my little eye, something that begins with b." Hunk said.

"Is it something with a weird technical or Latin name that I'll never be able to guess in a million years?" Lance asked.

"... Yes." Hunk admitted.

Keith ignored them, he'd been listening intently to conversation between Allura and the delegate and he was very displeased about the contents.

"We need to know that you won't damage the artifacts, or lose them."

"How would we lose the artifacts?"

"We have a very intricate system in place to protect the artifacts, even the Galra have been unable to find them we need to make sure that anyone we give this information to can keep it out of the Galra's hands."

"The Galra have magic users, if they haven't found them yet it's because they've never had any reason to look until now. We have fought the Galra many many times and won-"

"A beginners streak can't be trusted."

"You think we can't protect the artifacts because we're weak!" Keith screamed, getting the attention of the other paladins.

"I'll show you weak!" He pulled out his bayard and charged the delegate.

He felt a split second of satisfaction seeing the fear in eyes of the person that had insulted him before a great weight pulled him down to the ground and crushed him against the floor.

"What are you doing!?" Lance asked.

"This is not how you make friends, Keith." Hunk chided.

They both dragged him out of the building while Allura tried to apologize profusely.

"Uh, I think I'll just go about town, coming Coran?" Pidge asked.

"Uh, I think I'll come with you." Coran said uneasily.

They darted away.

"What were you thinking!?" Lance asked, " How could you-"

"up, up, up." Hunk tittered, " Let me handle this." He requested.

Lance went slack jawed for a moment, then stomped off.

Hunk turned back to Keith. "Ok man, what was that about?"

Keith broke away and turned his back to Hunk, clutching his fists.

"I need him. OK, I know I can lose it when I'm by myself but it's different around him. He's like a rock, whenever I can't chill out i just concentrate on him and it's like some of his calm just rubs off on me. Sometimes I worry the reason I'm like this is, because of my Galaren half, and I worry I'll lose control. But I know he won't let that happen."

"You're afraid your alien half is going to make you evil without him. OK dude, what are we? Chopped liver, you know we wouldn't let that happen."

Keith inhaled then let out his breath in a rush. "I'll just feel better when we get him back."

"We'll get him back." Hunk said, gesturing to Lance that he could come back.

"So are you all good now?" Lance asked, coming over.

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm good." Keith said.

"Great, Let's find someway to pass the time then." Lance said, brightening up. Keith was a little surprised that the other boy was able to get over his anger so fast. It was testament to how much he trusted Hunk's judgment.

"I've got an Idea, Let's play king of the hill, we've even got a crown." He plucked the band off Hunk's head. Keith had forgotten the other boy was wearing it, going by the way Hunk rubbed his head in wonder, he'd forgotten about it too.

Lance put his headband on. " I'll start, who wants to go first?"

"That is the stupidest - woah." Keith said, distracted by the way the band began to glow as it was placed on Lance's head.

Keith pulled out the hand console and examined it, " look, there's something on here now, It looks like it's on one of the moons."

"Guess something in that head of yours did the trick Lance." Hunk said.

"Yes! Perfect!" Keith exclaimed, "now we can go get those artifacts without interference."

"I don't know if that's a good idea." Hunk said, thoughtfully, " Didn't Arulla say we didn't know anything about these things and you can't take them off once they go on? What if it does something funny to his head?"

"We can't take the chance, because we could lose our shot forever if we take it off." Keith said.

"I've got more faith in Allura's diplomacy skills then that, but I guess I get what you mean. so where too?"

Keith checked the console. " The first moon."

Pidge and Coran walked through the city market place. There wasn't really anything Pidge wanted but they enjoyed listening to Coran tell them about the things that were in the stalls.

Pidges attention drifted across the glass windows that lined the store fronts, something in the window's reflection caught their attention, they glanced discreetly into the next window pane they passed.

"Coran." They said, " We're being followed."

"Are we? Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

"Wait, no." Coran leaped into the alley.

"Heyah!" Coran kicked the surprised Galra soldier in the face.

The soldier bounced off the wall and straightened, snarling, "You wanna go creep?"

"I'm warning you, I'm a master of mixed Altean fighting arts. Only two of which are purely ornamental. You come at me at me now and I'll give you some of this, HeeYA, and some of that hy _ooo!_ " Coran said, striking poses and showing off some fancy kicks.

BZZT.

The solder collapsed, Pidge stood behind him holding up their stunner.

"Thanks for distracting him, Coran."

"My pleasure."

The two slammed him against the wall and held him in a pin.

He met their gaze unflinchingly. "I'll tell you nothing."

"If he's spotted us here then that means either they had a way to track us here, and rather quickly I might add, and get a tail on us. Which is improbable. Or they have a base near here and he just happened to spy us by accident, which is more likely."

"Alright, leave this to me, I've interrogated many a spy in my day, and I know just how to get them talking." Coran said grimly, cracking his knuckles before pointing a finger at the spy's face.

"You will tell us where the lair is!"

"Will not."

"Will too!"

"Will not, will not, will not-"

"Will too, will too, will too."

"Will not."

"Will not, infinity."

"Will too, infinity plus one."

"I demand you never tell us where the base is!"

"If I say I'm going to tell you where the base is them I'm going to tell you where the base is! It's a quadrant 4-3 on the fourth moon hidden behind the forest and in front of the mountain!"

The Galra soldier paused in confusion. "Wait..."

"Alright we've got the information, let's go spy on those spies!" Coran announced.

"Way to go, Coran!" Pidge cheered, then sobered up, "I think you should wait here, Coran, I can spy more easily on my own and I don't want to worry about you getting hurt."

"But then _I'll_ worry about _you_ getting hurt." Coran countered.

"Don't worry about me, I'll have Green to watch over me." Pidge said.

"Hmpth." Coran crossed his arms, " I could watch too." he said, sulking.

Pidge ran to go get their Lion.

"Not a good backup?- Do they think of me as some old timey has-bin who's too on in his years to handle a little spy mission? Well, surely it can't hurt to tail them at a distance." Coran said to himself, before heading for the castle to get a ship, saying. "Sneak, sneak, sneak."

Pidge parked her Lion far enough away from the fortress that they weren't too worried about it being spotted, but just to make sure, they had the Lion cover herself in ivy, just like she was when Pidge found her..

Pidge tried to figure out a plan of attack. They were surprised to find that there was a grate that lead to the moat, going from the smell it was where they routed the plumbing through.

They groaned internally at the realization that this was probably the only way in. Psyching themselves up, They pried the grate loose and climbed up.

They made into the bathroom that way, glad to see that there was a bath. It was not a good idea to waste time washing, but they couldn't stand the smell. And if they couldn't stand it then the Galra would smell it and out them immediately.

Fortuitously no one discovered them. And- stroke of luck, they even found an abandoned robe hanging off the back of the door rack.

They hide themselves in it and skulked through the castle halls, they peered over a railing and were surprised to see a large crowd moving into a room below.

They ducked down and darted down the stairs and hid themselves in the crowd.

The crowd pushed them into a set of stands overlooking a caged stadium.

They were looking at a grey alien that looked like the same species as Zarkon, the young man(at least, they looked male) stood in the middle of the cage looking up at a stand.

A woman wearing a cloak was occupying the stand all by herself, it was elevated above the others, so that was obviously where their attention was supposed to go.

"Lotor, you stand accused of challenging the rule of Zarkon. how do you plead?"

"I stand by all I said, he's a relic, too blind to the passage of time to realize the way he does things is not the best."

"You understand the punishment, even for you?"

"12 rounds in the ring." Lotor said, "yes I know, don't stall."

A bunch of doors opened up at the corner of the cage, a bunch of the Galra guards flooded into the doorways, Pidge noticed a bunch of chests handing from the top of the cage.

They nudged someone next to them and pointed," what's in those?" They asked, before remembering themselves and hiding their pink fleshy hand in the folds of their robe, fortunately, the soldier next to them didn't notice their lack of fur.

"Could be anything, could be acid, could be weapons. You never know if it's something you want to be next to or not until it falls."

One of the chests was released, falling into the ring, it burst open, letting several guns go flying out into the ring, the Galra closest to them snapped them up.

Lotor dodged them, jumping upward and kicking out both legs, slamming his feet into two different Guards at the same time.

Lotor landed and weaved in between more blasts.

He rolled behind a weapon's rack to block the gun blasts. Using the rack as a shield he crawled over to a cage embedded in the wall behind the rack and started to pick the lock.

The Galra started to converge on him, nearing his hiding his spot. He managed to unlock the door and threw it open before hiding behind the bars as a large black inky monster threw itself out of the cage and began to rip into the soldiers.

Ignoring the screaming, he used the cage door to climb up the wall to the criss-crossing metal bars that wrapped around the dome to form a roof and began to use them as monkey bars as he made his way over to a chest hanging from the top of the stadium. He shimmied down the chain over to the chest and began to pick the lock,

The lock opened up and began to dribble before flinging itself open and dropping a cascade of acid on top of the ink monster.

Lotor swung back and forth before leaped on the other side of the acid puddle and looking up at the booth overhead, " I've managed to defeat a monster from the higher levers, I believe a Skitar is a level 15 monster, that should count for my trials."

The witch looked grim, "Don't let your ego get to you, your maverick tricks will only get you so far, you are not ready to take Zarcon's mantel."

"Maybe if Zarcon was willing to inject a few more maverick tricks into his strategy he wouldn't have been defeated by a bunch of earthlings that are willing to be a bit more creative."

"You are not capable." The witch said.

Pidge leaned over the edge to get a better look, " _who is that?"_ They wondered.

They hurried down in an attempt to eavesdrop on what what was going on.

"Are you alright my-"

"Don't bother me with pleasantries. What is my mission?"

The guard shut up abruptly and pulled out a hand console. " We have reason to believe that the black paladin is stuck in the astral plane, we will need to collect the items necessary to bring him back so we can capture him."

Lotor grabbed the console, " Out of my way, I'll have this done before our king awakes"

Pidge noticed a large grate behind a shelf, they shoved the shelf out of the way and unhinged the grate, crawling through the vents to follow Lotor into the other room, bypassing the guards.

They found the room that Lotor was in, and watched him equip himself with equipment for his mission. The alien began to shift shape. it grew long white hair and started to look more Altean.

"Who is that?" Pidge wondered, " They must be more important to the empire then the average soldier, not just anyone is allowed to backtalk Zarkon and have a fighting chance. But why?" They peered through the vents at the strange character underneath them.

"Who are you, mystery man?" They muttered to themselves.

They felt the grate give under their weight.

"Oh no." They muttered.

Suddenly the grate gave out from underneath them and Pidge tumbled into the room in front of the mystery man.

Lotor spun on them and held out a halberd in front of himself. "Who dares?"

"Gah!" Pidge exclaimed, scrambling to their feet. " Don't mind me, I'm just the vent cleaning servant, looks like the vent above your supply room is kind of bent out of shape, going to have to get my tools and tighten those screws, haha...ha."

"What happened to your ears?"

"Oh uh, plastic surgery, it's a new trend among the empire's youths."

Lotor began to circle them, studying them intently. "I've seen that suit before." He mummered.

"This is a new trend too, I'm sure you've seen someone wearing it in your peripheral vision or something."

"You're one of the paladins."

"No, I'm not." Pidge insisted.

"This is... perfect." He pointed at Pidge, " You! You will help me overthrow King Zarcon."

"Eh, wait? You want to stop Zarcon too?"

"Indeed, I suppose you saw my humiliation earlier?"

"Looked like you handled yourself all right."

"This time, but I refuse to be make into a spectacle anymore, Lotor is no man's show pony."

"hmm." Pidge put their hands on their hips. " So what do I get out of it?"

"I imagine you've come here for this." He showed them the console. " This device will allow us to find the ancient artifacts that will bring back the black paladin, I have been ordered to capture him. If you help me overthrow Zarcon, I will aid you in finding the black paladin."

"And you'll let me take Shiro home?"

"Yes."

"Alright, tell you what, _Shiro's_ the team leader, so if you help me find him, I'll introduce you to all the other paladins and let you make your sales pitch."

"Very well. I find these terms acceptable." Lotor said. " Go retrieve your Lion, I'll wait for you over the east hill."

Pidge looked him up and down seizing him up, They knew that the enemy's keep wasn't the best place to find trustworthy allies, but if this person could help them find Shiro it might be worth the risk.

"All right." They agreed. They followed Lotor's directions to the back door and sneaked out.

Lotor continued assembling his travel pack, "opportunity knocks, still, it's always best to have a contingency plan." He flipped open his communicator. " recovery team hail, change in plans, I'm going after the artifacts alone, follow at a distance and remain on standby."

He flipped his speaker off and smiled.

* * *

I've decided to write Pidge as gender neutral. The writers said that their gender is up for interpretation and I don't want to mess with anybody's headcannons so the way I figure it is- If using They as a gender-neutral- singular pronoun is good enough for Shakespeare it's good enough for me.

I haven't seen season three since it isn't out yet but I did watch a few of the old episodes out of order from the old series to try and find a personality to use for Lotor. For the most part he seems like a typical stalker egomaniac 80's villain. So I took most of my inspiration from the episode "Lotor, the good guy?" in that one Lotor tries to assassinate his dad, gets caught, tries to fast talk his way out of punishment, gets locked up, escapes, then helps the heroes escape Zarcon's steely grip out of spite. so that's what I'm going to using as inspiration here.


	2. the first and second moon

Chapter 2

They landed their Lions on the moon and leaped out.

"Let's try to find that artifact as soon as possible and get to finding the next one." Keith said, scanning the flat expanse in front of them with an air of determination.

"Gotcha." Lance agreed, He made an exaggerated show of putting his hand over his eyebrows and scanning the landscape.

He threw out a finger and pointed at something in the distance. "Look!"

"What is it?" Keith tried to ask, but Lance was already running ahead.

They followed and found Lance hunching over some blue flowers on the ground.

"Flowers?" Hunk asked.

"You ran all the way over here for gardening?" Keith snapped.

"These aren't just any flowers, they're _the_ flowers!" Lance said, waving his hands over the flowers as if trying to present an artistic masterpiece.

" _The_ flowers?" Hunk asked.

"Yes, _the_ flowers, these look exactly like the... well, I can't remember their name but they always popped out in my backyard around spring."

"Oh brother," Keith said," Look, you look at your flowers, I'm going to try to find the signal and get a lock on it. I'll circle back when I find it."

Keith ran off. Lance sat up on his knees and sniffed, "Man, this place really reminds me of home."

Hunk looked around, there wasn't really anything here except flat earth and yellowing grass-like plant life.

"Uh, there's nothing here." Hunk said.

Lance made an exaggerated sputter of disbelief, " Nothing here! Can't you see the potential of this place!?"

"Oh, oh yeah... Actually, no... No I don't." Hunk admitted.

"This place is _the. Perfect._ Soccer field, my cousins and siblings would have _loved_ it here." Lance said getting back on the ground and feeling the earth to check for flatness.

"Ooh. Ok, I see it now." Hunk noted.

Lance sighed dreamily, " man, this place really reminds me of home." Then he frowned, and glanced to his side tentatively.

"Hey... Hunk?"

"Yeah?"

Lance looked at him for a long moment then looked away

"... Never mind. Let's go find Keith." Lance got up and ran after the other boy.

Hunk momentarily considered badgering Lance into telling him what he wanted to say, something told him it might be more important than Lance was letting on, but he decided not to push it, it wasn't the time and his friend would tell him when he was ready.

* * *

A pair of ancient gray eyes blinked open.

"What's this?" The old witch asked herself touching the black band on her forehead,

"Looks like my prince isn't the only one attempting to find the relics, someone else is tapping into the astral plane besides me. But I don't think they've got the training I have. Their mind is open like a book, all those little insecurity trying to eat them away. Though they seem to have a good head on their shoulders."

Her wrinkled mouth widened at the edges,"Let's see if I can fix that."

* * *

Keith had found the signal and led them after it.

They walked until the ground became patchy, then walked until it became pocketed with deep puddles, the type that went up to your knees.

Keith squinted ahead, and pointed, " It looks like it's in there."

" Oh great." Hunk said, looking at a veritable city of vines and mud, " Just how I wanted to spend my day, wading through a swamp."

"Come'on." Keith said, soldiering on.

What they'd originally thought were thick vines was actually an unidentifiable alien plant about as thick as Keith's waist and covered in moss.

It was strong enough and large enough they could climb onto it like a series of interlocking tree roots.

They used them to get high enough to spot higher ground that they could hike up to avoid the water and mud.

"Man, I'm glad these suits are waterproof." Hunk said, "Otherwise this would be unbearable."

Lance nodded then made a pained sound in the back of his throat and winced.

"Hey are you alright?" Hunk asked, "Look a little sweaty there."

Lance smiled, but it looked forced, "I'm OK, It's just a little headache."

Hunk frowned, but didn't say anything.

Keith stiffened in front of them and came to a stop. Hunk nearly walked into him, "What's the matter?"

Keith didn't say anything for a moment then, he turned and tackled the two boys behind him to the floor.

"Hey, what gives?" Lance asked.

An arrow flew over their head and lodged itself into a tree behind them.

"Oh."

Keith leaped up and deployed his bayerd, he leaped from vine to vine until he passed by a tree-trunk-like plant that had a hole the like of which you'd expect to see an owl squatting in and sliced it in half.

The top half fell off and a terrified frog-like alien poked his head out, before trying to make a break for it.

Keith landed on him, pinning him to the ground under the boy's weight.

"Alright, Talk! Why are you attacking us!" Keith found himself being lifted up by someone holding him under his armpits. Hunk set him down to the side, "Keith, we talked about this."

"But, but,- arrow!"

"Let me try, Hello there, fellow traveler, we were wondering why you were shooting at us?"

"Trespassers, thieves, only members of the archives are allowed to cross this point." The alien spat.

"Archives again, he must know where the artifact is." Keith reasoned, He held up his bayerd, "Talk or so help me-"

"Keith." Lance said sternly.

Keith glowered at him.

"OK, OK, I get that this is your job and everything, but we really need to see that artifact, we promise we aren't going to damage it, but we need it to help our friend." Lance pleaded.

"I'm not going to throw my job down the toilet just because of some snotty teenager!" The alien snapped.

"We won't tell if you won't, but perhaps we can convince you with... this." Hunk pulled out a food platter and waggled his eyebrows.

"Where did he get that?"

"He never leaves the ship without one for exactly this type of situation, or in case he meets someone hungry." Lance explained.

"It smells… Delicious." The alien pounced forward, attempting to clasp the plate between its palms.

Hunk held it out of reach. "Uh uh uh. You didn't answer me, do we have a deal?"

The alien started to sweat, it's nostrils flared, taking more of the scent.

"Grr, Ok deal, but food up front!"

"Deal." Hunk said, handing over the platter. The hungry alien devoured it, it's eyes rolled up into the back of its head in pleasure, "Oh yeah, nothing like that in this swamp. I really need to transferred to a different post."

"Are you going to take all day?" Keith asked impatiently.

"Huh, oh yeah, follow me." The alien turned and started to walk away.

* * *

Pidge kept Green lion steady as they approached the second moon. They glanced at the alien beside them.

Was this a good idea? They didn't know anything about this alien other then they'd come straight from the Lions den, no pun intended. This team up was not something that Pidge would consider optimal.

 _"If you let your fears rule you, you could lose your chance to do something great._ "

Well, Pidge wasn't going to let the opportunity pass if it meant getting Shiro back. They'd be great, just like Shiro wanted. Dad too.

"You might want to stop here." Lotor said, "It would be more prudent to air drop in than to land."

"Why?"

"A long long time ago this was a moon used for industry, run by robots that manufactured factory wares. but one day they were corrupted by a virus that caused them to go berserk and attack anything that moved.

"They're like robot zombies? " Pidge opened their mouth and let out a low moan that turned into a gargle.

They swallowed their drool and intoned in a low voice, "That's so cool."

"You might be less impressed if they infected your Lion." Lotor cautioned dryly.

"They could do that?"

Pidge asked, feeling a chill at these words. Pidge gripped her consule tightly, feeling cold sweat dampen the inside of their glove. They were confused about the sudden sense of overwhelming terror, then realized it might be possible that the feeling was coming from their Lion. They'd never gotten anything even remotly simular from their Lion before. Even when surrounded by enemys and slowly losing. They theorized that the Lion might be feeling that way because battle was something the Lion had seen more times then Pidge could imagine, but becomeing a robot zombie was a new threat that the Lion had never encountered before. Pidge had contimplated the soncept of AI advancing to the point of sentience or the Lions being a differnt type of life form made out a differnet base then the organic life forms from earth, and this new experience lent credence to that theory.

"I do not know, but it is unwise to take the risk." Lotor said, looking out the window.

The implication that this virus might not affect their Lion was only slightly reassuring.

"Alright," Pidge patted the console," Sorry girl, we're going to have to part for this one."

Lotor shifted his gaze from the window to Pidge. "Why do you call your Lion a she?"

"I don't know what kind of weird space-lions these are based on, but on earth sleek lions are always girls. The boy lions all have wild hair mullets wrapped around their heads."

"Hmm." Lotor tilted his head back in contemplation."I would be interested in seeing one."

Pidge had been dying to see a space lion their self, maybe they could ask Corin to take them to a space zoo sometime.

The Lion dropped them off at the top of a hill and flew away.

"So uh, what happened here?" Pidge asked, looking out toward their target, attempting to peer through the snowy

"No one really knows. One day there was a thriving industry, the next day radio silence, a team of eight left to investigate, dissipated, a squad came to investigate, only one returned." Lotor said, pulling out a large parchment and wandering off to the right towards a cliff.

"Well, that's informative." Pidge griped. Pidge spotted something moving under some snow covered moss and pushed the moss out of the way with her foot. A large centipede- like creature appeared.

"Well hello fella, where's your momma?" Pidge asked, wondering if this bug would be as friendly as the caterpillars they'd met before.

"If this map is correct then-" Lotor started to say, before looking up to see the centipede. He pulled out a pistol and shot it through the head.

"Hey! why'd you shoot my new friend?" Pidge demanded.

"Your _friend_ is carnivorous, and strong enough to eat through metal." Lotor snapped. "So I suggest you stay away from _his_ friends. Because if you get caught in one of their hives I'm not digging you o-ARGH!" He stepped on a bit of earth that gave away under his feet, throwing up his hands and losing his map.

"Lotor!" Pidge called, running up and falling on their hands and knees in front of the hole.

Lotor hit a hilly mound and slide partway down it before coming to a stop.

He groaned, then pushed himself onto his hands and knees.

"Are you alright!?"

"urg, I am unharmed." Lotor stood and glanced around.

Eyes appeared all around him, the light from above reflecting against them like cats eye.

Centipedes began to crawl out of the moss towards him.

Lotor screamed in terror, " No! Nooo! Get away!" He fell on his back and scrambled away from them.

Pidge grabbed the map and leaped into the hole. They ran up behind Lotor and grabbed him under the armpits lugging him to his feet.

They pointed at the far wall, "Shoot there!"

"What?"

"Trust me!"

Lotor shot the wall, blasting the chunk out of the side of the cliff wall.

Pidge grabbed his arm and ran forward, leaping across the backs of the centipedes until they came to the edge of the hole and leaped out.

They plummet down the side of the cliff, Pidge trying to figure out a way to use their grappling hook to catch two people without ripping their arm off when Lotor pulled out a sword and plunged it into the side of the cliff.

"Why did you save me?" Lotor asked.

"Because you're my teammate?" Pidge said, resisting the urge to add a 'duh' to the end of that sentence.

"Your species has a strong pack instinct, I must remember that."

If this person really found not letting your companion die by preventable causes to be that alien a concept then Pidge was rethinking their choice in company.

* * *

They followed the alien through the march and up a hill. Hunk decided to lower his visor so he could the feel the breeze on his face, it brought the smell of moss on it, his finely trained chiefs nose picked up another smell hidden underneath, it was the kind of rotting meat smell he made it his mission to ferret out before allowing it to contaminate his meals.

He looked around at all the large holes in the ground, His hair pricked on the back of his neck as he imagined all the things that could be hiding in them.

"There." The alien said, pointing to the largest hole, "That's where you'll find the artifact."

"Keith and Lance grinned at each other, and Keith sprinted towards the hole.

Hunk watched their alien guide. His skin tightened into goosebumps as a nasty grin split the creatures face.

"Keith, wait!" He warned.

A large white pincher reached out of the burrow and wrapped itself around Keith's waist, lifting him up into the air.

"Keith!"

Lance ran over and wrapped his arms around Keith's hips.

Hunk strode over and wrapped his arms around Lance's chest, looking back at the frog.

"You tricked us!"

"That's what you get for threatening me, you little brats!" The frog snapped before hopping away.

Hunk dug in his heels and pulled. The combined might of him and Lance tugged the alien out of its burrow, A horrible monster with a spiny white exoskeleton.

"Urrgh." Hunk groaned, tugging with all of his might.

Keith, pulled out his bayerd and banged the side of the monster's exoskeleton with it.

The monster loosened its grip and The paladins managed to slip out of its hold.

The monster scuttled out of its burrow on crablike legs and gave pursuit.

Hunk pulled his teammates to their feet and the teens made a break for it.

"Quick, get high! It won't be able to climb without hands!" Lance called.

They started to move up a tilted tree-trunk-like plant when it snapped.

They rolled down a hill and kept rolling until they landed in water.

They resurfaced and sputtered before turning to look up the hill.

The crab peered down at them before losing interest and moving away.

"That creep stiffed us!" Lance snapped.

"Ugh, we'll just have to use the console."

"Uh, guys, can we get out of the water?" Hunk said, " I can't see anything through that thick algae layer and it's creeping me out.

They crawled onto the beach. Hunk thought he heard something as he was getting out, he looked over his shoulder to see a ripple in the water move towards them. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

"Run!" He screamed. Bolting forward.

His friends followed on his heels and just missed getting chomped as a large fish swam out of the swamp water, beaching itself on the ground like a whale.

"Yikes." Lance said, turning to leave, "Guess, we'd better keep on our toes."

"Yeah," Keith said, following him, "Who knows what else could happen."

Hunk exhaled and started to follow them.

What none of them counted on was the strong fins of the creature behind them, It used them to push itself forward and grab Hunk in its mouth.

"Hunk!" Lance screamed, before the fish dragged his friend into the depth.

Hunk managed to get in a good breath before being dragged under.

He pressed a button to pull down his visor, the suit filtered out the water and filled with air.

He didn't know how much good it would do him, the fish swam away too rapidly for the boys to follow, meaning his chance of being saved by the cavalry was diminishing more and more each second.

Hunk thought, trying to think of a way out of this. He feebly attempted to slam his fist into the fish's eye. He used his other hand to cover his face to keep the moss drifting in the water from flying into his eyes. Something swam past the corner of his vision.

The next instant a giant salamander- like animal with a cavernous mouth made a beeline for him.

The fish made a sharp turn to escape, dropping Hunk in its haste to escape.

He swam upward and clambered onto a tree trunk.

"Hunk!" "Huunk!" "Huuuuunk!"

He could see his friends up above, they had climbed up onto the high ledge to get a better view of the water, scanning for any sign of their friend.

"Hey, Over here!" Hunk called. Waving his arms.

Crash! The salamander lurched out of the water in an attempt to bite Hunk.

"Yikes!" Hunk made a beeline for the shore.

"Oh no." Lance whispered, glancing around for something he could use to help.

"Keith wait, don't run off." He said when he noticed Keith trying to run down to the shore.

"Hey! Hunk! Do you see that large log down there, the one with the end sticking up, run over there and stand on the base OK!" Lance called down.

"Hows that going to help!? "

"Just do it!"

Lance ran over to a large rock, "Keith, help me push this over there."

Keith and Lance pushed the rock to the edge of the cliff.

Lance watched until Hunk made it to the base of the trunk.

"OK, now shove!"

They pushed the rock over the edge, the ground gave way under Lance as he got to close to the edge.

"Oh snap!" He exclaimed, as he fell.

The rock fell on the upturned end of the trunk, throwing Hunk upward like a soccer ball launched off a see-saw and flinging him onto the top of the cliff next to Keith.

"Lance!" Keith called.

Lance groaned and shoved himself to his feet. Waves kicked out to the sides of the beast as the giant salamander leaped out of the water at him.

Lance turned and ran out along the shore line, the salamander right on his heels.

"That's it!" Keith exclaimed. "I'm going in there!"

"Don't worry, I'm going to start plan B!" Lance called back, activating his helmet.

"What's plan B?" Hunk called back.

Lance ran to a large pile of brown stuff it took them a minute to identify as Salamander dung and leaped into it.

"Yuck!" They exclaimed.

The salamander had the same reaction, sniffing the pile before make a face and turning back to retreat into the lake.

Lance pulled himself out and started back up the way. Hunk and Keith ran down to meet him.

Hunk scrunched up his nose in disgust.

Keith waved his hand in front of his nose.

"Eh, I was going for speed, but I think we can maybe slow down enough to wash that suit."

* * *

They didn't want to stay too close to the lake so they found another patch of water in the swamp. It smelled like moss, but that was better than dung.

They started to move on once Lance's suit and helmet was hosed off.

Keith climbed to the top of a trunk and looked out, "I see something like an abandoned city, it looks like someplace we should check for the artifact."

Lance heard a noise and spotted one of the frogs flit across his peripheral vision.

He pulled out his bayerd and took aim.

It didn't resurface.

Lance lowered his bayerd. "We should get out of here." He started to walk forward only to stop and clutch his head.

"What's the matter?" Hunk asked.

"My head… It's really. Ugh!" Lance hit his knee and clutched hi head harder.

"Lance!" Keith exclaimed, Coming over.

Lance screamed.

"We need to get that thing off his head." Hunk insisted.

"We can't! We need it to find Shiro, you heard Corin, if we take it off now it might not accept him again."

"We can let Allura try to find the artifacts, it might take a few days but we'll get them."

"But what if they don't have all of them, they never said they did! And what if something happens to them or Shiro before we can get there?"

Lance felt like his head could split, he thought if this pain didn't recede he'd die.

"Even if it didn't it would diminish his ability to fight considerably. he shouldn't be here now that he's compromised."

Did all they care about was his fighting ability? He was starting to think they didn't care if he lived or died.

Maybe it didn't matter if he lived or died. He was in a war for the earth, and they could find a new blue pilot.

Did it really matter if there was one casualty when saving earth. Really many wars had mutable people dying every day and that's just the ones for saving country, A whole planet would probably have whole cities dying a day if it meant saving it.

And this wasn't just a war for earth was it? It was a war for the entire universe. One that had been going on for a very long time.

If he'd had a moment of silence for every death there'd been in the fight against Zarcon he'd be mute for the rest of his days.

What worth did his life have in an equation like that?

"I'm telling you we-" Hunk started, Lance waved him to be quiet.

"What do you think I should do?" He asked Keith, he wouldn't do any less than his teammates.

Keith quieted, watching Lance's pained expression a few seconds before stammering. "I, well, I..."

He glanced at Hunk then crossed his arms and looked away, " Well... I know what I would do."

Lance nodded and stood up.. Oddly enough, the pain in his head started to recede as soon as his decision to bear it was made.


	3. Poison

Chapter 3

Pidge and Lotor landed at the bottom of the mountain. Lotor yelped and fell to one knee, hugging his leg.

"What's wrong?"

"It's my foot, one of your friends back there must have bit it, they have paralyzing venom. Do you still have the map?"

Pidge pulled out the recovered map and gave it to him.

Lotor checked the map. "There is a hospital wing for the engineers located due eastward, there should be antivenom there. All we have to do is- argh!" He tried to stand up and stumbled.

Pidge sighed, " I'll go. You stay here until I get back."

"No, I can still come with you, it will be some time before the paralysis is complete, here, take a pistol, you'll need it."

Pocketing the pistol Pidge checked the map to charter a path in their head then pocketed it.

Pidge felt a slight spring in their step as they walked towards their target. Their best guess was that the moon had a slightly lower gravitational pull than earth. Pidge was a little surprised that their travels hadn't taken them to a lower or higher gravity planet before now.

The spring in their step was light enough that Pidge didn't think it would affect them much, still it was something to keep in mind, they even had to push themselves a bit harder than seemed necessary against the strong wind that had decided to pick up. If they had time they would have like to experiment with the gravity to see how much of a difference it really made, despite the inconvenience this made Pidge smile.

Sure, trudging their way through a snowstorm through knee-high snow was not their idea of a good time, they hugged themselves and leaned forward against the battering wind out of instinct. But their suit protected them from the cold so it wasn't the chore they were expecting.

They should have been terrified. Traveling through zero visibility winds at high alert attempting to spot any blurs of movement that could belong to a robot with a working sensor. But they couldn't help but be pleased.

They haven't really gotten the chance to explore different planets that much. Which made sense. They were, after all, attempting to gather allies for a war, and that meant privileging Earth-like planets in their travels. Since those were the ones that could sustain life. But that still felt more like culture shock than space travel at times. Pidge didn't really feel they'd gotten the full space experience limiting their travels to life sustaining planets. In a way, it just felt like visiting different variants of Earth.

When they finally found their brother, they were taking him on a cross galaxy road trip in a race to discover which one of them could become the next Issac Newton first.

They spotted movement ahead and got low, Lotor hunkered down beside them.

"The machines have transmitters that allow them to communicate with each other over short distances, if you see one you must hide from it or shoot it in the head where the power processor is to turn it off. If it manages to transmit our location every machine in the building will come after us."

Pidge aimed and shot, blowing out the metal skull. It was a bit off-putting. The robots must have been based on either the Galra or the Alteans, but since it was just a metal husk that didn't need any extraneous bits like ears or tails they just looked like metal humans. Maybe a bit skeletal but recognizable.

Pidge found themselves in front of a brick wall, it was old, and crumbly bricks sticked out enough that they felt they could get a comfortable hold and start to clamber up, Whenever they came to a crumbly spot that looked suspect they tensed up like a coil and launch themselves vertically upward, using the low gravity to their advantage.

The top of the wall was a flat surface about a few feet wide and made a comfortable path, it was like the builders are trying to build the Great Wall except not as impressive.

The wind died down enough that she that they could see so they walked along the wall, careful to stay away from the crumbling sides. They came to a part of the bridge they had given out completely, it appeared that the skeleton of the bridge had been a structure made out of metal pipes, the wall had given out, but the pipes remained.

"Let me go first." Lotor said. Passing the gap by using the pipes as a tightrope.

The piping gave way under his weight. The part he was standing on gave only slightly, but the part in front of him gave way completely. Bracing himself, he launch himself off of the pipe onto the wall, landing on his side and throwing up flurries of snow.

Pidge looked around for a usable hook point and saw the flag pole jutting out near Lotor reaching up toward the sky, they hooked their rappel around around it and swung over to join Lotor, falling into the snow and sending more flurries flying.

Resisting the urge to make snow angels they got up and looked down at the next jump they needed to make, looked like it would break their bones, they took a risk on the gravity and jumped anyways, gritting their teeth as their bones pressed uncomfortably into their sockets. They followed the pathway as it rose toward a building, that was supposed to be the factory Lotor had sent them to, weird, Pidge had never seen a factory built out of stone like a temple before, but when in Rome.

The pathway began to give out under them.

Pidge ran, the rumbling informing them that the wall path was giving out behind them.

Pidge and Lotor made it into the building only for the floor to give out under them and plunge them into a hallway filled knee-high with water.

It was surprisingly warm, the generators buzzing away at the sides of the room producing heat helped explain why, Pidge just hoped there was nothing radioactive in those generators, and made a mental note to ask Allura or Coran about the radiation shielding capability of their Paladin armor.

Pidge looked around for anything they could use to escape, there was no rusted-out grates they could use or kick out. What they did notice was the crumbly looking wall with water leaking out it. They finished metal instrument that looks like a pickaxe out of the water. "Let's hope this works."

They smashed out the wall so the water could break through and flooded the room.

did so quickly. Which allowed them to clamber onto the upper hallway.

They ran forward till Pidge accidentally bumped into a pole which dislodged something from the ceiling.

A large hunk of metal attached to the ceiling by a wire swung towards them like a pendulum.

Lotor shot at it wildly until he managed to shoot out the wire, causing the large object to land on the floor and causing a chain reaction that made the floor fall out from under their feet.

They landed in a body of water, floated for a moment,Pidge pulling down their visor and turning toward Lotor with worry. Lotor pulled out a small oxygen mask from his pack and placed it over his mouth, Pidge's suit provided oxygen so they decided they to just swim through.( _Note to self-find out which part of the suit was the oxygen tank. Must warn other paladins not to let it get punctured in battle._ )

Pidge swam against the flow of the water, robot parts flowing past as they went.

They caught a glimpse of something moving to their side. Something reached out and placed a large hand on the side of an open grate.

A robot lurched out of the grate and looked right at Pidge. A red glow in its eye powering up.

Pidge shot it before it could scan them and crawled up out of the water and grappled up onto a platform.

Pidge peered over the side there was a small waterfall flowing into the room from parts unknown, Pidge looked down into the water.

Robots continued to go about their business, oblivious to the lack of oxygen down in their watery crypt,

Pidge looked for a way to get across without being spotted. A crane holding a forgotten crate above the water looked like it could be the ticket.

Pidge used their bayerd's grapple to hook the crate and pull the crane arm towards themselves.

Pidge jumped on the crate and used their rappel to pull themselves forward.

The robots looked up at the movement, red light scanned the crate. Lotor hunkered in the middle pulling Pidge down with him, shying away from the lights and hoping the scans couldn't get through the crate and get a positive.

After scanning negative the bots went back to their preprogrammed routine, allowing Pidge to leap onto a balcony unencumbered and enter the next room. Pidge put a hand over their brow as they scanned the room then grinned, "There it is!" They exclaimed running over to the medikit.

They opened it to find several smashed vials and a few intact syringes of antivenom.

"Yes! We're back on track."

Pidge ran out into the other room and leaped back onto the crate, giving Lotor the vial to inject himself with, which he did as Pidge threw their grapple across the room to pull themselves across with.

Crrrreeek-

The crane tipped over, smashing into the side of the wall and knocking out the bricks that were holding back the water. The water gushed through the bricks until it broke through completely, throwing a tidal wave over the room.

Pidge's tiny body was carried away with the torrent, they gripped their bayerd to themselves tightly.

They slammed roughly onto a pile of bricks and gasped.

Pidge forced themselves into a sitting upright position and glanced backward around themselves.

Lotor was floating face side up next to them looking stunned.

"Don't want to do that again. Let's see- small cramped, waterlogged hallway, closed off exit. Yep, looks like I'm not going to get out the same way I got in. ookay." Pidge noticed they'd dropped their pistol and started fumbling around in the water for it.

Sssss- Pidge looked up to see a small wave of water raise out of the pool.

A bot lurched out of the water, the red scanner in its eyes powering up.

Pidge's fumbling increased in fervency.

Two other bots rose out of the water behind the first.

The red wave of light drifted over Pidge as their hand wrapped around their pistol.

The bot beeped twice as it confirmed a positive scan.

Pidge shot it in the head and yanked a groaning Lotor to his feet and turned to run.

 _"Why didn't I tell anyone I was going out here!_ " Pidge thought, then leaped over an explosion of water as several bots attempted to lunge out of the water to grab them.

 _"I wish Shiro or Allura were here._ " Both of them had a soft presence that could turn hard as steel if needed, that would be very comforting right now.

Pidge shot another bot out of their way and stuck the pistol into their mouth to hold it as they clambered over a large mound of rubble in their way.

They took the pistol out of their mouth and continued running.

" _Lance and Keith would be good. Hunk too._ " Both Keith and Lance were excellent fighters, and while it took Hunk a bit to get going he could pack a mean punch.

" _I'd even take Coran, he'd probably be having a thousand ideas about what to do right now, why, some of them-_ "

Pidge ran over a patch of crumbling rock that gave away under their feet.

They felt their chest slam into the rock as they fell halfway into to the hole, "Ugh, -might even be good." They wheezed.

Lotor landed next to them and pulled them to their feel before yanking them after him as the pair ran forward.

They scrambled out and glanced back into the hole, taking note of the pile of shrapnel under the rock that would have impaled them.

They bolted away, leaping over other suspect patches of floor, a few of which gave out anyway.

They smashed through the doors in front of them and gapsed.

In front of them was a closed off room with no windows or doors and not much in it other than a mound of snowy rubble near the back and more bots to fight.

Pidge glanced up at the ceiling, the bricks were falling out of it, a good tug might bring the whole ceiling down and let in more than snow.

Pidge's attention was distracted by this computation long enough for a bot to blind side them.

It lunged at them, grabbing blindly and getting a hand on the pistol gun on their hand.

"Hey, that's mine!" Pidge exclaimed, trying to wrestle it back.

Lotor kicked the bot away from Pidge and the two ran up the rubble heap.

Shooting robots out of they as they went. More opponents continued to fill into the room behind them.

Pidge climbed to the top of the heap and watched the robots charge up towards them.

Pidge sent their grapple to hook into the top of the ceiling and pulled, yanking the rotting support beams and bringing falling rubble on the robots below.

More robots filled into the room, climbing over the rubble.

Pidge pulled out their pistol and began shooting left and right, attempting to keep an eye on the bots while simultaneously scanning for a piece of the roof that was unrotted enough that they could hook their bayerd into it and rappel out. Sometimes the blasts pinged of the metal, but they usually managed to get in between the eyes and blow out the processor.

The pistol began to click uselessly, out of power. Pidge threw it at a robot, watching it bounce off uselessly, then pulled out their bayerd and pointed it in front of themselves.

Lotor pulled out a grenade and threw it at the side wall, sending reverberations throughout the room as the wall crubled into dust.

Pidge scanned for another hookable object and spotted a frosted over flagpole sticking out of the side of the factory, they hooked it with a grapple and handed the beyerd to Lotor.

"Swing over there!" Pidge ordered grabbing onto him.

Lotor swung them across the side of the building, when they came to the end of the swing he retracted the grapple mid swing and hooked into something else, swinging them farther away.

Despite the severity of the situation, Pidge couldn't help but laugh.

"AAAAHHAUHAAA- ME TARZAN YOU JANE!" They yelled.

"Beg pardon?"

"Never-mind."

Whatever they were hooked into broke, sending them flying down into the snowdrift.

They rolled down the drift, still until they finally rolled to a stop, Lotor landing on top of Pidge.

They looked at each other awkwardly.

Lotor gaped.

Pidge started to turn red.

Eventually Pidge couldn't take it anymore and starting flinging their arms around.

"GET YOUR KNEE OUT OF MY CROTCH!"

"GAH!" Lotor leaned so far away from them he had to wave his arms in an attempt to keep his balance.

It didn't help, he fell on his back.

Lotor pushed himself up on his elbows, and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry."

Pidge sighed, "Well, that's something I guess- hey! What happened to my bayerd?"

Lotor looked around. "I do not know, perhaps it got lost in the snow when we fell.

"What! Oh no!" Pidge scanned the snowdrift, "It could be anywhere! I'll never find it in all this snow."

"Perhaps we'll get a chance to come retrieve it later, but for the moment we should concentrate on finding the artifact." Lotor reasoned.

Pidge sighed deeper than before, " I guess you're right."

Pidge trudged through the snow away from the drift. " I really loved that bayerd."

Lotor watched them go, waiting for them to get out of earshot before pulling out his radio.

"calling scout team, come to the coordinates, I need you to retrieve an Item."

* * *

Lance's headache had really let up, it wasn't a sharp pain like the one that brought him to his knees before, but the constant pounding was really starting to get him.

Hunk kept glancing at him with worry, but Keith carried on.

Eventually, they dragged their way out of the swamp and found themselves in front of what looked like an abandoned town, mossed-over rooftops in various states of disrepair seems to be threatening to drop shingles on top of any passerby.

"It looks abandoned, but it also looks like the perfect place for that frog to bring his friends and wait for an ambush. You stay here and watch Lance, I'll go scout." Keith said.

"I don't need watching. I'm coming to." Lance said.

"Keith has got a point Lance, I don't think you are fighting fit." Hunk added.

"But you can't just send the sword guy up against archers! Send me! I'm the rifle guy. This is right up my alley."

"I said you are staying here and that's final." Keith said.

"Who made you team leader?"

"Well, actually-."

"I'll go." Hunk said, pulling at his beyard. "Keith, you stay here and guard Lance."

"I don't need guarding!" Lance called.

Hunk ignored him and walked on.

Lance gritted his teeth as the throbbing increased to match his frustration.

"I don't like standing out here in the open, we're sitting ducks over here."

"Easy Lance, I'm looking out for you." Keith said dismissively.

Lance found this less comforting than patronizing. He didn't want comforting platitudes about how everything was going to work out, he wanted to be listened to when he picked out reasons why, maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't.

"Well, I still don't like-do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That squeaky hinge noise, something big and metal is being scraped across something across town."

"Keyword-across town. It won't bother us over here, we'll let Hunk check it out."

"it's making me uneasy, I'm going to climb up and look at it."

" _I'LL_ climb up and look at it, you stay here." Keith said.

Lance felt even more patronized than before, but didn't say anything.

"What is it?" He asked as Keith reached the top.

"I don't see any-wait-there is something over there."

"What?"

"Looks like one of those little catapult things, what are they called? Oh yeah, a Trebuchet."

The hair stood up at the back of Lance's neck. "Keith! Get down!"

A giant flaming rock from the opposite side of the town from what Keith was looking at slammed into the tower he'd climbed up, bring it down under him.

Keith managed to leap off it and roll as he hit the ground, but he still hit it hard, twitching then going still.

"Keith!" Lance exclaimed, running over to check on him, still breathing, maybe he'd just passed out from the shock or something.

Lance felt eyes on him, he looked over to see glimpses of the frogs flitting through the alleys.

A scout must have spotted them and found someway to signal the others, including whoever was manning the trebuchets. If Keith was looking at one while getting hit by another then there must be at least two, probably one on each side of the city.

He pulled Keith over into a corner, which turned out to be a wise choice because it got him out of the way of the shrapnel splinters as another rock smashed into the clearing.

Two frogs rushed him, he deployed his gun and froze their legs.

Another frog poked its head over a rooftop and began firing at him, he shot a blast back.

He didn't see what he hit but he heard a scream and a thud as the frog fell.

He felt kind of bad about that, all they wanted was to get the artifact and go, now they were fighting to the death because they hadn't considered the possibility that the jerks back on the planet might have given it security guards.

This was stupid, they should have just let Allura have talk time so she could get it without this. A few days wait time wasn't worth killing over.

"Wait, "He screamed, "We don't want to fight- we surrender!"

He felt an arrow go by his head, narrowly missing his skull.

"Finish what you started intruder! No take backs for thieves on this Moon!" The frog sneered.

"Dammit!" Lance clenched his fist, The raised his gun, "NONE OF THIS IS NECESSARY!"

He started blasting indiscriminately, What was the point? He wondered as he blasted another frog away.

Self defense perhaps, but there was no reason for them to be in this situation in the first place.

Another flaming rock hit the ground by him, spreading flames everywhere.

He blasted any moving blurs he could make out through the flames.

A frog wearing armor, leaped through the flames, Lance backed away while firing. The frog continued to run into the bullets as if it's believed that its armor would spare it. He froze the ground in front of it, causing it to slp and land in front of him close enough for him to slam the hilt of his gun into the back of its head. Was he kidding himself? He came out here to stop killers, and now he was killing too and for what? Convenience.

No, not convenience, time, and time was precious, he didn't have time to wait around for them to find the Black paladin while The Empire was inching its way to Earth.

Hadn't he already logically concluded that it didn't matter if he died or not? If so, then why did these people matter either? What is a few soldiers in the race to save the universe. Nothing, less.

He heard a familiar quick, intermittent, blasting noise. This told him Hunk had followed the commotion back to him and was guarding his flank.

He sheathed his gun and grabbed Keith, carrying the other boy on his back over to where he heard the sounds.

Hunk covered him as he made his way out of the flaming clearing and pulled Keith with him up onto the rooftops.

Keith manage to wake up on the way.

"What-?"

"Cat, fox, rhino, flamingo, dolphin."

"What are you -?"

"I'm checking you for a concussion, repeat what I said."

"Cat, fox, rhino, flamingo, dolphin."

Lance nodded, that was good, the last thing they needed right now was a concussed paladin.

"I saw some tunnels down there that we can hide into to escape the rocks."

"We can't go in there, it will fall down on our heads if they fire on it with us in it, it might fall down on our heads even without them firing on it."

"But running through the corridors would be suicide, they could bring the towers down on our heads and squish us flat."

"They probably don't want to wreck their city, besides if they think that we'll try to escape through the tunnels, then they'll fire down on those instead."

Lance groaned again, the pain in his head, growing more acute. But that didn't stop him from listening to their conversation, he got to his feet and ran into the tunnels.

"Lance, wait!."

He ignored them and ran through, squeezing past the rotten logs into the tunnels and internally throttling the uneasiness that coursed through him as walls around him and the ground beneath his feet lurched horribly.

He heard his team chasing after him and yelping as they dodged falling rocks, but didn't look back. As he ran keeping his eyes open for an escape route.

He saw a boarded up exit at the end of the tunnel, equipping his gun as he charged and blasting it as he approached before throwing his whole body through it, smashing it open and falling into the next room.

Hunk and Keith threw themselves into the room after him, hunk screeching as the rubble around the opening collapsed in a small avalanche trapping them inside.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! YOU NEARLY KILLED US!" Keith yelled.

Lance let out an uneasy breath then explained.

"We had two options, running into the caves, or running into the corridors, these had three outcomes;

One, they fired on the caves and brought it down over our heads.

Two, they didn't fire at the caves and It came down on our heads anyway.

Three, they didn't fire on the caves and it didn't come down on our heads.

But they had two options-they could bring down the towers-which had a 100% chance of killing us If we were in the alleys and a 50% chance of killing us if we were in the tunnels.

Or they could bring down the tunnels, which had a 100% chance of killing us if we were in them and a 0% chance of killing us if we were in the alleys.

If I was manning that thing then I would feel like I only had one real option. And it seems like whoever was manning it today had the same thought."

"So you ran into the tunnel because it had _only_ a _50% chance_ of killing us?" Keith said.

"Like you had a better idea."

"Yeah, look for a third option."

"While the towers were falling on us?"

"Okay guys, we are all kind of stressed out here but I think it's time to put this behind us and-" Hunk started to say.

"No! We are not ready to put this behind us! Keith, Shiro, Allura , all of you guys have been treating me like I am stupid or something. I am not stupid. I got into the Garrison. I am not stupid."

"From what I heard you only got in because I dropped out."

"It still counts! I had to work my way up the top pilot in the commercial class to become a fighter pilot. That makes me one in 10,000. I'm not stupid."

"Guys! Guys! We're all stressed and tempers are running high, so maybe we should take five and -"

"I'm not stressed! You guys keep telling me I'm stressed! If I _wasn't_ stressed, I'd get stressed from being told I'm stressed!"

"Hunks right. We need to move out and find that artifact."

Keith said, brushing past Lance and moving down the tunnel. Lance knew the conversation was over, but that didn't ease his ire, if anything, it just made him angrier to be brushed off once again.

Lance breathed out in rush and stood up, following his teammates into the cavern, only to bump into Keith.

"Why are you standing still? " Lance asked.

"I think we've got something." Keith said, looking at the console, he followed the arrow over to a corner and opened a box. It had a black sphere in it.

* * *

I mis-remembered Lance's bayerd as shooting ice while writing this, must have gotten it messed up with Blue's gun turret or something, But I'm too lazy to change it, so for the rest of this fic Lance's bayerd shoots ice. Artistic license- AWAY!

Next week, my favorite chapter.


	4. Divided loyalties

Chapter 4

Pidge and Lotor found a mineshaft that led downward, the signal went down there and the wind had picked up again. It led them into a cave.

"Soo…" Pidge said trying to think of something to talk about. "Why are you white?"

Lotor looked at them strangely, they flushed and rushed to explain.

" I mean, why do you have white hair now? You looked like the same species as Zarcon when I first saw you. But you change shape when you're alone. Why?"

" I am part Altean. But this slender form I default to isn't respected by the Galra. So I change it in public."

"Are there a lot of Alteans in the Galra empire?"

"No, only the druids, I would like to know more about them. But the druids and my father are very tight lipped about that subject."

" Well, I've got some friends who are Altean."

" You do?"

" Yeah. When they meet you you can ask them whatever you want. Then you can help my friend with some things too."

"Your friend?"

"Yeah. He's a Galra, sort of. He's half Galra' maybe you could tell him some stuff about them."

" The Galra have some traits that have been socialized out of them."

"What? "

" For example. The Galra have claws on their feet. but we have uniform rules that forces them to wear shoes on their feet. so they file them down to fit better. Now most of them think of their back claws as a nuisance instead of an evolutionary asset. Small restrictions like that keep them in line."

" I see. Like elephants tied to poles as babies, learned restrictions."

" It's supposed to help keep order- wait- look." Lotor moved over to the large columns lining the sides of the cave. Lotor traced a finger across some writing etched into them.

"Altean scripts, I wish I could read this better."

"You can't read Altean?"

"I wish I could, my mother was Altean, and I've always wanted to learn more about them."

"Put your hands in the air." A voice barked.

They stood to attention, scanning for the voice. A group of people came out from the tunnels and pointed guns at them.

"Alteans!" Lotor said in awe.

The Alteans surrounded them.

"Wait, we're the good guys."

"And where did you get that scanner?"

"We tricked a druid into wearing a band for us, Lotor is a defector."

The Altean... Monks?- Lowered their weapons and considered this.

"It would take a druid to wear one of those bands. No one else is twisted enough to wear one."

"Twisted? What do you mean?"

" The witch Haggar has a tight grip on the Altean channels to the spirit world, anyone attempting to use one would be left susceptible to her manipulation, she could take a healthy, well- adjusted person, and crush them so hard under the weight of their doubts and fears that they become unstable, developing paranoia or even losing their capacity for empathy."

"Jeez, I'm glad it didn't accept me or Hunk, I hope Keith didn't try it on while we were- Oh no! Keith! He might have tried it on while we're gone, we have to warn him!"

"Give us the artifact and we can be on our way." Lotor said.

"We are not going to give the artifact we've spent our whole lives protecting away that easily, not even to a strange alien dressed like the Green paladin."

But I am the Green paladin, I can even show you my Lion."

The monks started whispering to each other.

"Zarcon was once a paladin, that isn't necessarily proof that they're on our side."

"Too bad." Lotor said, " Now we'll have to do this the hard way." He morphed back into his Zarcon copy and pulled out his radio. "Move in."

"Who are you talking to?"

"Them."

The Galra entered the room , raising their weapons at the monks.

"What! I thought you were defecting!"

"I didn't say I was defecting, I said I wanted to overthrow my father, his ways are archaic, it's time for a new order."

"Father! You're-"

"That's right. I haven't fully introduced myself." he drew himself to his full height.

"I am Prince Lotor."

"But, but, I thought-"

"That we had a deal? We do. You help me overthrow my father and I help you defeat Zarcon, I'll even take your planet off of the annexation list."

"This isn't what I wanted." They didn't get into this to replace one dictator with another.

"No...?" Lotor said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

"No!" Pidge hollered.

"Too bad, now I'll have to take my own measures, bring in the prisoner."

The Galra brought in Coran, hands chained together.

"Coran? What are you doing here?"

"Uh, well, I thought maybe I'd follow you, incase you needed backup... long story short, I need backup."

Lotor put his hand on Pidge's chin, tilting it up to look at him.

"You see Pidge, it's very simple, I want you to come back with me to my castle so I can show you off, then we can pull out the Black paladin and get to business assassinating my father, sound good to you?"

Pidge snarled in response.

* * *

"It says the next artifact... is in the embassy we just left."

They landed on the planet.

"When I get my hands on those jerks I'm gonna-" Keith started.

"Um, yeah, about that," Hunk started, "Maybe you should just sit this one out."

"Sit this one out! But-"

"Ah! But nothing! We need to convince them to give us the other artifact. And that requires diplomacy, not beatings."

"Maybe beating are just the kind of diplomacy these jerks need." Keith muttered, Hunk heard him over the Lion comm. "Keith." He said sternly.

"Ok, jeez, fine, I'll go." Keith turned Red around.

"Don't lose the artifact while we're getting the other one, OK." Lance cautioned.

"I know I know, what do you think I am?" Keith snapped.

"I'll let that go without comment," Lance said, piloting Blue lion down the planet after Yellow.

Lance glanced back at the Red lion as it flew away, wondering if splitting up was such a good idea. Then decided that he could probably take the entire planet by himself and Blue if he needed.

They landed their Lions and entered the embassy.

Lance scanned the room until he spotted Allura, then he called out for her and ran over.

"Hey, Allura? What did they say? Did you convince them to give you the artifact yet?"

Allura turned to face him tears streaming down her face.

He stopped in his tracks.

"Oh Lance, I'm so sorry, the artifacts have been lost to time, nobody knows where they are anymore."

"Oh, is that what they told you?" Lance said, skeptically.

"I'm afraid without the artifact I don't know of any way to bring back Shiro, we might have lost him forever."

"Uh-huh." Lance strode past her and leaned over the alien ambassador, this might be alien racism, but he was getting tired of frogs.

"So, you lost the artifact?"

The frog leaned away from him, sensing something amiss.

"Nobody lost the artifact, it was just lost to time, these things happen."

"Funny, because this little band on my head powers a tracker that says the artifact is in the embassy. "

"Wha- Lance? I told you not to put that thing on, we don't know-"

Lance put up a hand to silence her, he knew she'd be irate about it but at the moment he didn't care.

"So, seeing as the artifact is lost to time I think I might might be able to help find it, why don't you let me go into that room over there."

"No, you can't!"

"Why not?"

"These are.. Classified rooms. You can't go in there."

"Not even to find the Black paladin?"

"You have no proof your tracker works." The frog blurted out.

"Oh don't I?" Lance said, "Let me tell you a funny story. See, I found a different artifact first, it was on one of your many moons."

The frog's eyes widened.

"When we asked the frogs there to give it to us, they agreed, then they tried to kill my friend Keith. Twice. Do you know what I did after that?"

The frog swallowed, "What?"

"I killed them, dead. Dead dead. Never getting back up dead. So I'm going to give you an offer they turned down."

The roof rumbled and split, Revealing Blue Lion as it pulled off the top of the building.

She tossed the item aside with ease and looked down on them, opening her mouth and powering up her turret so they could see the glow of blue in her.

"Give us the artifact and you won't get hurt."

"Lance, what are you doing?" Allura reprimanded, " This is not how we do things."

"They won't meet us halfway? Then this is how we do things now." Lance stated, walking over to the door and throwing it open to reveal the artifact, he picked it up and walked over to the far wall.

Hunk grabbed him and spun him around so they faced each other.

"Lance, what has gotten into you! This isn't like you."

He noticed the black band glowing a soft purple on Lance's head.

"I think wearing that thing is starting to do things to you." Hunk reached for the band.

Lance smacked his hand away and backed away from him.

"No! we need this to find the Black pilot and save the earth."

"We need it to find Shiro, remember Shiro? He's our friend? Ok man, I need you to take that thing off and give back that thing you stole."

"Stole! stole! It belonged to the Alteans first, these jerks just hid it to obstruct us, if they aren't with us then they're against us!"

"I don't support the way you're doing things either, does that make me against you too?"

Lance let an expression of surprise grace his features for a second before he reeled in his emotions and put on a steely mask.

"Yeah, I guess it does."

The wall behind Lance was ripped out, Hunk threw up his hands to keep the blazing blue light in Blue from blinding him. Lance jumped backward out of the hole into Blue's mouth. Blue swallowed him and flew away.

Hunk gritted his teeth and turned to run.

"Don't worry, Allura! I'll knock some sense into him!"

Hunk called Yellow over and hopped into her mouth before taking chase.

"Turn around, Lance!" He commanded as he started to gain ground on Blue close the third moon.

"No, Hunk. I'm going to go get the other artifact, and you aren't going to stop me."

"I'm sorry about this buddy,"

Hunk flew Yellow over Blue and pressed Yellow's belly against Blue's back, dragging down the other Lion until it slammed into the surface,

Blue somehow managed to scape out from under Yellow and turned to face Hunk.

"Is this how it's going to be Hunk?" Lance said dangerously.

Hunk gripped his handles tighter before answering.

"Yeah, yeah it is."

* * *

"Stupid jerks, ditching me, just because I want to get things done."

Keith sighed and pulled out the large sphere he'd acquired on the first moon.

"Maybe, Hunk is right, maybe I am acting like a villain, maybe all of my self control comes from my team. " He sighed and rested his forehead against the sphere.

"I wish you were here so I could talk to you."

He felt a spark of energy connect his head to the orb.

He pulled back to watch in amazement as the dark orb started to turn purple and flicker an image.

Shiro lay down on a lawn chair floating in a purple space.

"I guess it is kind of nice to be able to relax for once." He said to himself.

He sipped a tropical drink before setting it down.

"God, I'm bored."

"Shiro. Shiro! Is that you?" Keith called.

Shiro pulled off his sunglasses and looked around. "Keith?"

"Shiro!"

Shiro finally noticed Keith and walked over to the "Screen" To look out at him.

"Keith, you found me."

"I'm so glad to see you."

"And I you, are you ok? Is everyone ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're all ok."

"I'm glad to hear about that, but are you sure?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Is Lance ok?"

"Wha- yeah, of course, why wouldn't he be?"

"Coran was worried about him."

"Pth, is that all?"

"I wouldn't write off Coran's observational ability, Keith, remember when Pidge came out?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You've seen pictures of Matt's family, Hunk read Pidge's journal, and Allura had her mice to tell her. Coran is the only one who figured things out by himself remember."

"Oh yeah, maybe he is more observant than I've been giving him credit for."

"How's Lance been."

"Well, kind of headachey, I guess, I've been making him wear this headband that's supposed to help us find you and it's been hurting his head, oh Shiro, the Black lion should give you the ability to move between the spirit realm and this one. "

"Really? How do I do that?"

"Well you- uh... ask your Lion I guess?"

"Hmm..." Shiro didn't seem so sure, " I guess I'll try, but me and Black... I'll try."

He frowned, " are you sure Lance is ok?"

"Why do you keep asking about Lance?"

"I don't know... I've been getting this weird feeling about him. If he's linked into the spirit realm, maybe that has something to do with it."

"Well, he has been getting kind of grouchy, but I've just been assuming that that's because of the headband."

"I'm not sure I trust that thing, you should go tell him to take it off."

"But we might need it to get you back."

"Getting one teammate back isn't worth losing another Keith."

"Losing, what are you-" Keith sucked in a breath and looked up.

"What is it?"

" Green is here."

Keith held down a button, " Is that you Pidge? Come in Pidge."

Suddenly he got a memory through Red.

* * *

Pidge held Green lion's muzzle,

"I managed to get the artifact off the monks without Lotor noticing, take it back to Keith and make Red tell him to take the band off. It does things to its wearer, if he put it on he could get taken over by Haggar. He needs to get it off. Don't worry about me. I'll stall."

Pidge put the artifact in Greens mouth. "Go!"

"Hey! The green Lion is flying away!"

"Stop it!" Somebody yelled before Pidge slammed bodily into him.

* * *

Keith, Keith! What happened."

"I think Red just showed me a memory he got from Green."

" About?"

"Beep" the communicator recieved an incoming message.

Keith turned the con on.

"Hunk, What happened to Lance!"

"How did you kn- never mind, it's that band on his head, I think it's doing something to him."

"Well, get it off!"

"I'm trying but he flew away in Blue, now we're fighting over the third moon, it's a good thing this moon doesn't have anything on it except canyons and ravines, because he's freezing the moon over."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know, I don't think he's in his right mind right now, I need you to get him over here and help me- wait- he's gone."

"What do you mean he's gone? I thought you were looking right at him?"

"I was, but then he turned the corner of a mountain and disappeared."

"A fifty foot tall lion doesn't just disappear!"

"I know! I know! I'm going to fly back over to see if I can find him."

* * *

Hunk turned Yellow around and flew back the way he came, scanning for anywhere that Blue could have hidden. If it was their first time going over this part of the moon he'd just assume that Blue was hiding in a canyon, but Blue had iced over all the canyons, Lance would have have to have driven the Blue Lion through a thick sheet of ice to get into a canyon, and Hunk didn't see any breaks in the ice.

Suddenly Blue smashed through the ice from below and rammed herself into Yellow's underside, tipping the larger Lion onto its back and pinning it.

Hunk yelped. "He hid in a canyon and iced it over from underneath so I couldn't see him."

Blue opened her mouth and started to power up her turret.

"Keith, I need you, I need you here now!"

Blue blasted ice all over Yellow, trapping her on her back and icing Hunk inside his Lion.

* * *

"Hunk! Hunk!"

"You're right something happened to Lance, and he's attacked Hunk."

"You go find them I'll... just stay here and... try to talk to Black." Shiro said, looking down.

The image in the sphere blanked out and Keith set it down, powering up his Lion and speeding away towards the third moon.

He spotted Blue flying away and pulled up beside, hailing Lance on the link.

"Why are you doing this!?"

"Because I seem to be the only person dedicated to saving the earth."

"We are. We're doing everything we can to save earth."

"Not everything, and I've got responsibilities beside earth, I've got to get back to my family, not that you care about that."

"What are you talking about? We're not going to let you die."

"Don't think I haven't figured out that I'm just a placeholder until the real Blue paladin shows up, you only tolerate me because you don't have a replacement."

"That's not true."

"Yeah right! Like you can name anything I contribute, what do you know about me Keith?"

What did he know about the other teen?

He knew that Lance was the type of person who was willing to jump off a cliff and run into dung to do what he thought was necessary. But he couldn't really remember if he'd seen Lance have any other chances to put his strategies into practice. Shiro usually picked the tactics so he'd never gotten a chance to see Lance's capability on that role.

He realized with a jolt that meant he didn't really know what the other boy was capable of.

That just meant he had to take him out fast before he could pull out any surprises.

Red tried to swat Blue down, but the other Lion blocked each blow with apparent ease.

"Dammit, I'm faster than you! Why aren't you losing?" He snapped, not believing the way the Blue Lion went toe to toe with his.

"You've never played soccer have you?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"The ball moves too fast for the keeper to catch on instinct, you need to learn to predict where the ball is going and start moving to block before it starts moving, as impulsive as you are, I've always been pretty good about predicting your moves."

"Are you? Well, predict this." He turned his Lion around and flew off.

Blue started to follow. "Running away? Not your style, what are you planning?"

"I thought I was mister predictable? Can't you tell?"

"Doesn't matter, I'll shoot you out of the sky before you get the chance."

Red dodged the ice blasts with difficulty, Red was fast, but Lance was a good marksmen.

Once he'd gotten enough space in between them, he turned Red around and nose dived at Blue.

He grabbed a stun gun and opened the hatch leading out of the cockpit into Red's mouth. " Ok, girl, just air this time, aim as well as you can."

He crammed himself into the Lion's gun turret. Red opened her mouth and spat him at Blue.

Part of him instinctively expected air rushing past to pop his ears, but the vacuum of space ensured complete silence as he sped onward.

He twisted in an attempt to avoid the ice being shot past him, getting his arm frozen solid.

He managed to maneuver himself past the bulk of the beam while keeping himself close enough to it that he was on a trajectory towards Blue's mouth.

As soon as he got into the other Lion's mouth he could get into the cockpit and attack Lance directly.

It was while he was pitching forward into Blue's mouth that he was afflicted with two sudden relizations.

One- Blue would crush his body into applesauce the moment he touched her mouth.

Two- Keith was not a clever man.

He slammed into the back of Blue's mouth and groaned.

Blue started to bring down her mouth on him and he threw up his unfrozen arm over his head crying "Wait!"

Blue's mouth paused above him.

"Blue, hey, hey Blue, look, I know we haven't had an opportunity to talk much, but! Hear me out here. Something's wrong with Lance, and I think you know that, If you let me go in there I can fix it, just give me a chance to try." He said.

Blue lifted her mouth up farther and slowed to a stop, floating lifelessly in space.

Keith inhaled deeply and let out a shaky breath.

He pulled out his bayard and used it to chip away the ice, then he unequipped it and opened the hatch leading into the cockpit.

He hunched his shoulders and strode over to the chair.

"Alright, Lance, This is-it?" He peered around the chain into the cockpit and was surprised to see it empty.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see a glimpse of gritted teeth and flashing eye's before a fist found its way to his face. Knocking him to the floor.

Lance deployed his bayerd, "Did you really think it's be that easy?"

"It'd be disappointed if it was." A part of Keith's brain snarked.

"ARrgh!" He lunged at the other boy, attempting to wrestle the bayerd out of his hands.

Lance kicked him, managing to knock him a few feet away.

Keith pulled out his stunner and pointed it at Lance. "It doesn't have to be this way Lance."

"I disagree." Lance said, pointing his gun at Keith.

"Why are you being like this?"

"Why shouldn't I be! Don't think I haven't noticed you guys going out of your way to put me down."

"We aren't. I mean- ok, maybe a Little, but if you put down the bayerd and take off the headband-"

"That's the difference between you and me Keith, I bet you think you can talk me out of this."

"I want to try."

"I suppose that would work for you. wouldn't it, you're so knee jerk that I guess that probably _would_ be all it would take for you. But I don't trust words, I don't even trust actions. All I trust is patterns, And I've got yours pegged."

Keith gritted his teeth and raised his stunner, mentally apologizing.

Lance kneeled close to the ground, "Blue, gravity off."

Keith felt the jerk of weightlessness as he drifted off the floor.

Lance kicked off the ground, soaring to the top of the cockpit like a swimmer kicking off from the bottom of a pool.

Lance shot at Keith as Keith drifted uselessly in midair.

Keith pulled out his sword bayerd and used it to block the shots. He used his other hand to shoot a few stun blast at Lance.

Lance used his bayerd on his legs, folding them in front of himself and icing them, making a makeshift shield.

Keith's blasts smacked uselessly into the ice and Lance shot around it at Keith.

Keith managed to drift over to a wall and kicked off trying to launch himself at Lance, blasting the other boy's ice shield in an attempt to crack it.

Lance used the fractures in the ice to break it by parting his legs. He kicked a floating chunk at Keith's face, hitting Keith in the forehead and sending him spinning him backward until he slammed into the wall behind.

" Note to self- engaging the paladin with the sharpshooter bayerd in long range combat= bad idea." Keith thought.

Now Lance was floating uselessly and Keith had a good kicking off point.

Determined to change this into a close quarter fight, Keith prepared to launch himself off the wall.

"Blue, gravity on."

Keith plummeted to the ground like a stone, both his iced over bayerd and his stunner flying out of his grasp.

It really didn't help that Lance had home Lion advantage, looked like Blue's help ended at not biting him in two. Keith ducked behind the pilot chair and waited.

"End of the line, Keith." Lance said, coming over.

As soon as Lance rounded the chair, Keith threw himself at the other boy, slamming him to the ground and knocking the Bayerd out of his hands.

They pushed against each other like sumo wrestlers.

Keith spotted the band glowing a soft purple and- emmiting a determined yell- slammed his forehead into Lance's. Cracking the ancient artifact placed there and crumbling the black band to the floor.

They fell to the floor and rolled.

" I won't let you hinder me from saving Earth!"

"Is that all you're worried about?"

"What else is there?"

"Hunk!"

A light of horrified realization flashed through Lance's eyes, and Keith knew he'd gotten through.

"Oh no! Hunk!" Lance forgot Keith and made a break for the controls. "I left him trapped in ice, I mean he's in the Yellow Lion so he should be fine- but I blew ice chunk up into the cockpit! We have to go get him."

Keith inhaled deeply and breathed out, lying on the floor. He waited for Blue to land and start hacking away at the ice with her paws before crawling out and calling his own Lion over.

Blue excavated Yellow and Red placed her paw on Yellow's mouth, melting out the ice block and allowing Hunk to come out of the Lion.

Lance leaped out of Blue and ran full tilt at Hunk, wrapping him in a hug and crying.

Hunk hugged him back. "Glad to have you back buddy."

Lance pulled away and looked at Hunk with watery eyes, something passed across his eyes and he gulped, closing his eyes and tilting his head down.

"Hunk? " He stiffened, "Do you-" He looked at Hunk's face with a desperate expression before bursting out, "Do you hate me."

"Of course not buddy, I know it wasn't your fault."

Lance shook his head violently, "That's not what I meant!" He exclaimed. He swallowed again, " Do you hate me for dragging you out into the desert."

A look of confusion graced Hunks face, " What desert?"

"The one with Shiro, If I hadn't dragged you out here you'd be back on earth, back home, with your family. So I just have to ask... Do you hate me!?"

"What? No! I could never hate you, and It was my decision to follow you out there, I think I've proven today I'm more then capable of putting my foot down if I disagree with you, Lance."

Lance shuddered and wiped his eyes. Keith put a hand on Lance's shoulder and waited for the other boy to look at him.

"I'm sorry I did this to you, Lance, I was so focused on the teammate that I'd lost that I forgot to take care of the ones that I still had."

He placed his other hand on Lance's opposite shoulder, " I promise, I'll bring you back to your family," He glanced at Hunk, " Both of you."

Hunk smiled at him, Lance sniffed and tried to pull himself together. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, we've got to go get Pidge and Coran."

Hunk looked up," But we're not going to be doing it alone." He exclaimed.

The Black lion did a flyby over them and hovered, waiting for them to gain air and follow it.

They cheered and jumped in the air, smacking their hands together in a triple high-five.

* * *

While I'm pretty sure that flying out of a high speed ship and then slamming into another high speed ship would turn you into applesauce all on its own, I'm willing to claim artistic licence on this- mostly because it's awesome.


	5. Revelations

Chapter 5

" Alright, I'm not as fast as Pidge, but I think I'm in."

Hunk managed to pull up the security feed on Pidge's computer.

"Great work, Hunk!"

They peered into the screen.

"I'll take Hunk and head to the dungeons to get Coran, Shiro and Lance can stay In the ballroom to blend in until needed, and Keith can use the grates to get to the upper rooms and warn Pidge. When he gets eyes on Pidge, wait until me and Hunk give the signal telling you that we've got Coran and the monks out, when we're clear, extract Pidge and join us outside." Alurra said.  
Keith nodded and ran over to the side of the building, ripping off the grate and crawling inside.  
Lance made to move forward when he felt a hand on his shoulder stopping him.  
"Are you sure you're up for this?" Shiro asked.  
"What? Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"  
"That band did a real number on you from what I hear."  
"Shiro, it's OK." Lance said, holding up his hands, "I mean, I did have... thoughts. Before. But I could always talk myself out of believing them. When the band was on my head I lost the ability to examine the thoughts that came out of my head. But the bands gone and I can think straight again, so I'm fine, really."  
Shiro nodded and put on his mask before leading the way into the room.

Keith continued to inch forward, and came to a halt when he spotted Pidge through the grates he was crossing over.  
They were sitting on a cushion stool, studiously not looking at the tall white-haired alien trying to get their attention.  
"Oh, now don't be like this, surely, a mind as well oiled as yours must realize that I have added several decades onto your lifespan by removing you from the war. Or, at least, I would be, if you weren't refusing to eat."  
They studiously refused to look at him.  
"Are you still refusing to speak to me? Don't you think this silent treatment is just a bit juvenile? Why won't you let me take you down stairs and shows you off? I guarantee, you will be pampered like a princess."  
They turned their head slightly and spotted him in the mirror, their eyes started to drift to the other side of the room to look at him, but they caught themselves, stiffening, and standing up.  
They stood up and in one swift movement turned to face their capture, clenching their fists lightly in front of them.  
"What did you do with my friend?" They asked, sounding strained.  
"You're what? Oh, the adviser. We threw him in dungeons, to await interrogation."  
"I'll let you take me up to the ball room and show me off. But not unless my friend is there too. I won't speak or eat until I see him."  
"Ah, I see, humans are pack animals. I will have to keep the humans in the same area. Once I've collected them all. We will visit them often."  
"Just, wait outside a moment, so I can get ready, I will join you outside soon, I just need a moment to myself."  
"Very well." He left.  
They darted over to the grate, clenching it with their hands. "I am so glad to see you, is everybody here?"  
"Yes, What's going on?"  
"I think I accidentally gave him xenophilia, now he wants to put us all in his zoo or something."  
"Okay, just play nice for the moment, we will wait for them to bring up Corin, then we will ambush them and get him back. When we are done. We will give you the signal, and you excuse yourself to the bathroom. When you come out of the ballroom, we will knock out your guards, and make a break for the Lions."

"Great, stay there a minute."

"What- why-" Pidge threw their uniform over Keith's face.

"I'm not losing my uniform just because Lotor wants me to look pretty." Pidge said, squeezing into some fancy dress clothing.

Pidge looked out at the party floor, a large ballroom stretched before them, and it seemed like they were the guest of honor today, everyone wanted to dance with them.

Pidge scanned the crowd looking for an out or a friendly face, but all the faces seemed to blur together.

Another dancer cut in, dislodging the last one whom they had already forgotten.

"Not your scene I take it?" The man in the Galra armor said.

Pidges face lit up, "Shiro!" They said in an awed whisper, trying to peer through the parting in the helmet.

Shiro slipped them a com and their bayerd, blocking them off from Lotor's sight with his body.

"Think you can keep them from seeing this?"

The bayerd disappeared under their dress wear.

"Yeah. What's the plan?"

"Me, Lance, and Keith are all in here watching out for you. Allura and Hunk went to go rescue Corin."

"No, go help Corin, I'm safe here, Lotor thinks of me as a prize animal, he won't hurt me."

"I don't want to leave you here alone."

"Then leave Keith. You and Lance can go get Corin." Shiro nodded and left, gesturing to Lance to follow him.

Pidge continued dancing with the aliens that filed into the dance floor. Scanning the floor for Keith.

One of the guard waved at her. Pidge grinned.

That grin slid off of their face after one of the other guards walked by and whacked him for losing focus. Unprepared for this Keith pitched forward, slamming to the floor in a way that allowed his helmet to fly off.

Pidge cringed and looked around to see who noticed.

Seeing Lotor's displeased expression they knew they'd been caught.

* * *

Lance strained to listen over the pounding of their footsteps as he followed Shiro deeper into the castle.

He was attacked by a sudden light headedness, causing him to tilt his head back slightly and slow down. He caught himself and sped up to close in on Shiro.

"No. No. Not going to give in… Give in… Give in to what… what is this? It feels like-"

Lance came to a stop." Something's wrong."

Shiro slowed to a stop. "What's wrong?"

"I feel, I feel a presence… It's the black band."

"But we ripped it off, didn't Keith brake it?"

"He did but I feel, something coming here for us."

"A strong intuition too, not a bad trait for my new champion."

"Haggar!" Shiro snapped, running in front of Lance and blocking him off from the witch with his body.

"I'm not letting anywhere near him!" Shiro exclaimed.

* * *

"And you, Pidge?" Lotor asked, sounding like he was channeling parental disappointment.

Pidge felt patronized, but swallowed the feeling, watching Keith walk into the center of the caged coliseum where they had first seen the man next to them.

The Galra forcing him into a cage backed away, guns still trained on the teen in front of them, and closed the door behind them. Locking it and backing away from it, but still staying close enough to shoot him if he found a way to knock in the door and escape.

*clink, beep* Pidge stiffened, waiting to see if there was any reaction to her com coming on. She and Lotor were in a box by themselves, so none of the Galra were close enough to hear the com.

Pidge leaned way from Lotor and used the cheering of the crowd to drown out their voice, placing a hand over the mike to keep it from getting overwhelmed from the sound.

"We've got the monks and Corin, are you ready for extraction?" Allura said.

"Slight complication, I think It might take everybody to get us out of this one."

"*Sigh* What's happened now?"

"Keith's in a cage, coliseum, thing. I think they're going to make him fight something."

"Great, let me call over Shiro and Lance." Allura said, blinking out.

Pidge leaned back into a normal position just as Lotor turned to smile at them.

"I can guaranty, whatever happens next, you won't be bored."

Lotor turned his attention back to the cage, leaning forward.

*Clink, beep.* "We've got a problem." Allura said.

"What?"

"Lance and Shiro aren't answering, we can't track them."

"What!" They shrieked.

Lotor looked at them oddly.

"*Cough* Sorry, over excited."

Lotor's lip twitched upward.

Pidge waited for him to turn his attention away before leaning away again.

"What do you mean, they're missing." They hissed.

"Self- explanatory, Pidge." Allura reminded.

"OK, OK, we've got an advantage, everyone in the castle is here to watch the fight, that means you can have the run of it all to yourself, find Lance and Shiro first, then come rescue us."

"But what about Keith?"

"Keith's tough, he can survive a few rounds." Pidge said.

"I hope so, Pidge, I don't like any part of this." Allura blinked out.

Pidge turned their attention back to the coliseum just in time for the room to shake.

Pidge sucked in a breath, down in the cage Keith tensed, pulling out his sword.

Part of the cage floor folded in on itself and pulled underground. Something rose, lifting into the center of the cage floor.

A large green tentacle monster with multiple mouths rose to the center of the ring. One of the mouths shot fire, another one spat ice at Keith, forcing him to roll out the way.

Pidge sank into their chair groaning.

* * *

"ARGH!" Shiro swiped at the witch. She evaded him, being more agile then she looked.

Lance tried to help by firing off a shot.

She disappeared and reappeared right behind him, Lanced tensed up, a shiver crawling up his back.

"Why are you working so hard? Is it because you're in front of your hero there? I've noticed how it is, you look up to that one, don't you?"

"Stop talking and fight!" Lance snapped, spinning around and firing off another set of shots.

Haggar slide across the floor out of the way, gliding away as if by magic.

"It must hurt, that's a rhetorical question. I know it hurts. You finally meet the person you look up to most and he snubs you, favoritism is always a thorn. It pricks the insides of those it passed over."

"I'm not here to talk about Shiro."

"You would make a better leader, he lets his favoritism blind him to such an extent he lets his favorite run ruck-shod all over your missions without listening to cooler heads."

"Nobody's perfect, and Shiro's no different."

"Have you thought about what you're doing here? I know you have. You think you're making a difference, why? Because you have a cute toy that can turn into a giant? This universe is full of giants, whole planets of them, we've defeated them, what makes yours better?"

"She's trying to get in your head don't-"

A gag appeared over Shiro's mouth. Bindings crawled up him and bound his hands together, pulling him to his knees.

"You're a child, your effort will bring little fruit, still, Voltron has despite its weakness, become a symbol of hope, and it would do us a great deal of good to turn a part of it to our side, so I offer you a deal."

The scene changed, windows appeared around them, windows of earth, of families playing on the beach, of deer foresting in the woods, of birds flying across the sky.

"You want to defend your world? Then I offer this chance to spare it. Join us and we'll leave it be."

"Do you take me for a fool, I'll never join you!"

"Are you so sure about that?"

The windows changed again, this time to show countless Galra fleets.

"Even if you can save the universe, do you think that's going to spare your little earth? We could sent a fleet to conquer it behind you back any time. Keep this up and you'll have nothing to return to but a wasteland.

Something appeared behind the windows, fluttering in the air was a flock of something- some _things_ \- that looked like dark purple moths.

" You want to protect your home- then join us."

"I- I could never-" Lance stammered, resolve shaking.

"I've seen inside your mind, I can tell you're capable of seeing the logic of the situation, you've already figured out that you are worth nothing. And under the influence of the black band you were able to see that other lives are worth less." A few of those moths fluttered over towards Lance, landing on him.

" All you have to do is join us, and you can-"

"NO!" Lance screamed, throwing up his arms and dislodging the moths attached to his clothes.

"That's not how they would want me to defend them, I started doing this so I could become a symbol of hope, Agreeing to this would make me a symbol of fear!"

Lance strode over to where Shiro was and ripped the gag out of his mouth before untying him.

"You think you can get rid off the fears that easily?"

The moths suddenly melded together into one large mass and surged over Lance carrying him away from Shiro.

Lance gasped, finding himself floating in the air, surrounded by a faint purple glow of Hagar's dream world. His vision was obscured by the flurry of moths fluttering around him, it was like being lost in a blizzard of violet petals. He tried to reach out for help. "Shiro!" He called. Watching his friend disappear from sight.

* * *

Pidge leaned over to peer into the cage. But they weren't watching Keith dodging the alien's bladed tentacles. They were examining the sides of the cage, looking at the construction of the cage.

"Clink, beep." Are you there, Keith?" Pidge whispered.

"Kind of in the middle of something here, Pidge." Keith said tersely.

"Look at the sides of the cage, there are rivets all over, it you remove them the ceiling of the cage will fall in."

Keith slashed a bladed tentacle in half. "And I want that- why?"

"Because the cage will fall on top of that thing's head, it's big enough to hold the cage up enough for you to crawl out from underneath without getting crushed, which means you can escape with ease."

"Gotcha."

Keith backed up then charged, leaping over the blade trying to slice him as he went by.

Keith leaped forward, using the tentacles as stepping stones until he'd gotten high enough to leap at a rivet. He tried to swipe at a rivet as he got close to it, his foot coming into contact of the side of the cage and slipping downward pitching him downward and causing him to miss the mark. He banged into the side and rolled down the side, barreling back onto the floor.

"Ugh, that didn't go as well as I'd hoped, Oh no!" Keith said staring down at his hand, "Not again!"

"What's wrong?" Pidge asked.

"My hand is turning purple again."

"Wait, Galra could have mild shape shifting abilities like Alteans, can you move the process along, become even more Galra?"

"Why would I want that?"

"If you lose the shoes it might help you reach the rivets."

"No! I don't need it!" Keith exclaimed, slashing through more bladed appendages.

"Don't throw away your advantage Keith. Lance and Shiro are missing, you need to keep these guys from getting bored, or they could leave and run into the rescue team."

"Wha- both of them?" Keith said, getting concerned.

He let out a shaky breath and gritted his teeth, charging the rivet again and leaping.

A scaly appendage grabbed him by the ankle and lifting him into the air near the top of the cage before letting go. Keith pitch down, several bladed appendages reaching up to impale him. Keith kicked off his Galra-armor shoes and oriented himself so he was pitching down headfirst, he spun in the air holding his sword below him at an angle, slicing the long arms reaching up to meet him.

He finished his transformation. Reaching forward and grabbing a thick tentacle with his front claws he dug his back claws into the beast with his feet, slowing his descent to a stop so he could leap across the tentacles to slash the rivet with ease.

The Galra observers went wild with screaming cheers.

Lotor frowned at this, "What are they getting so excited about?"

Pidge chuckled, "Looks like Keith joined the club."

Keith leaped from arm to arm using his increased agility to get to the rivets faster. The monster tried to throw him off by flinging him into the air and he simply grabbed one of the chains suspending the chests above and used it as a swing to get to the last rivet.

Keith slashed it off and clung to the side of the cage. The cage groaned under its own weight and started to come down, falling apart in places.

Keith pressed his arms against two sides that were coming apart and pressed them apart farther so he could squeeze through.

The cage roof slammed down on the creature. It squealed and tried to poke its appendages out from under the ends of the cage but poked its arms into the other cages lining the walls, getting them ripped off and bitten by the monsters inside.

"What else you got!" Keith yelled, the Galra went wild with cheering.

Lotor leaned over the edge, "I don't believe this." He muttered, angry. "Well I'll fix that."

He peered at the other cages along the walls, "what monster should I put in next?"

"I've got an idea." Pidge suggested, surging forward and shoving Lotor over the edge into the Colosseum.

"Umpth!" He exclaimed.

The Galra kept cheering, thinking he had entered on purpose.

"Argh! You idiots, fine, you want a show, I'll give you a show." He pulled out a laser gun and took aim.

'What's the matter, Lotor, scared?" Keith said. Dodging the blasts from Lotor's gun.

"What makes you say that?"

"I just can't help but notice that I'm the only one showing my true colors here. Afraid the crowd won't like what it sees?"

"Rrr." Lotor shape-shifted, turning back into his Altean form.

"Gah!" He cried as Keith flew over and, taking advantage of his lack of focus, sliced his shooter in two.

Lotor pulled out a sword and they fought.

They monster was angered by the lack of attention, reaching through the holes of the cage with its thinner arms to slam Keith and throw him across the room.

Lotor ran before the same thing could happen to him.

The monster opened up its mouth to shoot ice, only succeeding in icing over one side of the cage.

Lotor took refuge over on the ice platform where the monster's tentacles couldn't get to him.

He examined his sliced laser. It didn't shoot any more, but it did pool up a lot of heat near its front.

He used it to melt the ice and metal before him so he could get to one of the chests under the cage.

It had some kind of automatic arrow shooting machine in it, like a combination ak47 and arrow cannon.

He mounted it on the floor and aimed at Keith, who was being kept busy dodging bladed appendages and spouts of flames.

The weapon fired.

* * *

Lance groaned and held his head, all of the thoughts that had been floating around in his head under the influence of the band pierced his mind like needles, bringing the headache back.

"Lance! Lance!"

He curled up in a fetal position, hoping the pain and despair would abate.

"Lance!"

He opened an eye to see Shiro trying to force his way into the cocoon of purple. Shiro reached out his prosthetic toward him. Lance took hold of it and pulled Shiro into the cocoon with him.

Shiro floated next to him, holding on to his arms to keep from blowing away.

"What are we doing here, Shiro? This universe is filled with giants, what makes ours better?"

"Because our fight doesn't come from our size, it comes from our spirit, the Lions pulled on the power of our spirit to beat Zarcon when we last fought. And I believe you can pull on that spirit now to beat this witch, no matter how much she tries to bury under your worries."

Lance shut his eyes. The purple glow surrounding him turned a light blue.

"I think you've interfered in our little chat long enough, Shiro." The witch said, surging towards him.

The Blue lion materialized behind the two paladins and roared, flinging back the witch with an out pour of power and destroying the dream spell.

Lance found himself back in the room from before and crashed to his knees, panting heavily.

Shiro charged the witch, raising his prosthetic.

She dissipated before he could reach her, so he turned around and ran back to Lance.

"Lance?"

"I- I'm sorry-"

"Nothing to apologize for, she was trying to get inside your head, it's not your fault she succeeded." Shiro said. Pulling out his communicator he hailed his team.

* * *

"Why. Won't. You. Stay. Still." Lotor grunted. Trying to hit Keith.

The monster found it's way through the hole that Lotor had cut through the ice and swiped across the front of the cannon. Letting several arrows fly wild, embedding themselves into the wall going all the way up to the royal boxes.

"clink, beep" Keith? are you there?"

"Shiro, they've found you."

"Yeah, get Pidge out of there, I'm coming to extract you."

"Alright."

Keith charged again dodging another fireball.

The monster managed to shove its arms through the split in the cage.

Keith leaped in between the arms to get to Pidge.

"Arhg!" he flew away and skidded across the ice. A smoldering blast mark appearing on his stolen armor.

Lotor had gotten a new laser gun from another chest.

" I need an out Pidge." Keith muttered.

" Look at the wall under the royal boxes." Pidge said.

He looked at the wall and saw the arrows embedded into the wall.

" Yeah?"

"That shooter used arrows made out of a very strong metal. It embedded them deep enough into the wall that I think you might be able to stand on them.

"Right." Keith said, turning the com off.

Keith saw the way to the arrows and decided to make a break for it. Charging across the arena he dodged the blades of the appendages that were attacking him, he leaped over one of them only for something to land on him, pinning him to the ground. He looked up to see Lotor on top of him and Lotor raised his gun at Keith.

" Say goodbye, paladin."

The laser gun powered up, Keith could see the monster behind them raising an appendage to slam down on them. Keith kicked out a foot. Flipping up the laser gun that Lotor was holding so it faced the appendage above. The laser went off and slammed into the monster.

The monster let out an echoing screech from both its mouths. In its rage it grabbed Lotor and lifted him off his feet.

Keith used this opportunity to leap to his feet and run toward the end of the arena. He leaped up the arrows, which held his weight well enough for him to get all the way up into the royal boxes.

*Riiip* the ceiling of the castle was ripped unceremoniously off the castle. Opening the building to the sky.

The Black lion threw it away and floated down closer to the building.

Pidge raised their bayerd and shot a grapple out at the Lion's paw.

Keith took hold of the grapple and it lifted them up towards the Lion out of the building.

Down in the cage Lotor shot the appendage holding him up ,forcing it to drop him on his head.

He stumbled onto his feet and roared in rage at the sight of the Lion flying away.

He looked around at the Galra around him and screamed, "What are you waiting for! GO!"

The Galra filed out of the cage room and made their way toward the jets.

The Blue lion flew over their airstrip, freezing the jets in place before flying away.

Lotor stomped the ground in rage. " Somebody get me out of here!" He snapped.

* * *

Keith checked on his teammates to make sure that they were all OK, noticing that Lance was missing from the room he set out to go look for him. He found the boy near a window of the castle, leaning on a column and staring out into space.

"Lance?" Keith asked, walking over, "Are you OK?"

Lance didn't look at him, continuing to stare out at the expanse of space.

"I was given an offer today, Keith."

"An Offer? What kind?" Keith asked, not understanding.

" They told me that if I joined them they'd leave earth alone, I could have saved my family just by saying yes."

" Well, you're still here." Keith said.

" Yeah, for now." Lance looked at Keith, " But what if I'm not strong enough to say no later if they ask me again? I mean, who knows how long we're going to be doing this, And this is the sort of thing that wears on a person. If I'm tempted this much right out the gate, how am I going to be able to keep saying no."

" I... I don't know, I guess we'll just have to have confidence in our own strength." Keith said.

Lance continued to stare out at the window in front of him. Keith got the sense that this statement hadn't really helped the other teen much.

If this had been yesterday Keith would have left the other boy to work things out by himself, but he couldn't help but feel like Lance's melancholy was somewhat his fault. It did seem like Lance's current mood might have something to do with that band Keith forced him to wear. Keith internally cringed at the memory.

" I doubt that you're the first person to consider taking the easy way out fighting Zarcon, no one's going to blame you for fantasizing about finding a way to make things easy. Though my fantasies usually involve blowing him away with overpowered alien weaponry."

Keith thought, trying to think of something helpful to say, He realized he should probably offer something to make up for his mistake earlier and internally cringed again.

"If you... ever want to talk... like... if you need a pep talk or something..."

Lance burst out laughing, " Oh man, I must seem like I'm feeling really bad if _you're_ trying to help me." He turned to Keith, smiling, " So what exactly does a Keith-style peptalk sound like?"

Keith realized he's put himself in a sticky spot and tried to recover, " We'll I... It would involved..." He imitated Lance's finger gun pose," You can do it?" He said, sounding more like he was asking a question then making a statement.

Lance patted him on the shoulder and started walking back to the main part of the ship, " don't quit your day job, Keith, you don't really make a good cheerleader."

Keith smiled, maybe not, but he had managed to improve the other teens mood somehow and that was good enough for him.

He ran after Lance to catch up. " You want to train with me?"

"*Snnort* That really is all you do isn't it?

* * *

Lotor stomped into the room glowering at any Galra soldier that crossed him path, he took a slight bit of satisfaction when most of them either turned around and got out of his way or stood at attention and saluted, Looking nervous.

He was almost tempted to hit one just to watch it jump.

He flung a pair of doors open, taking a bit of pleasure from the way they slammed into the walls.

"Where were you!?" He snapped at the witch in front of him. " Didn't you get any of your- "He curled his lip, " psychic senses, to tell you about the breach at my castle?"

"I was perfectly aware of the breech, as I was aware of the Paladin you teamed up with when you teamed up with them, The band you wore did give me a little peek into that thing you call a head."

Lotor's cheeks blazed, he hadn't realized how much had been revealed.

" I would have had something to say about it, but I was occupied, one of the paladins had donned a band alongside you, I was scanning his mind, I nearly managed to influence him, but he fought of my manipulations."

Lotor forgot his embarrassment, " Not just anyone can do that, which one was it?"

"The Blue paladin, Lance."

"Lance." Lotor said, rolling the alien name around in his mouth to feel the shape of it.

He sat in his throne, resting his chin in his hand as he thought.

"Lance," He muttered again," Looks like the Paladins are more resourceful then I thought."

He straightened up and smiled.

" I can't wait to see what fresh havoc on my dear father's empire this new development will wreak."

* * *

Has anybody noticed the new trend of butterflies being used to symbolize emotional turmoil? Like Steven Universe did it and so did miraculous Ladybug and Chat noir.

Thats the end of this fic, bye everyone.


End file.
